A week or two ago I transplanted "Coleman Hawkins" to a more prominent location so I can appreciate it even more next summer. This daylily is a must-have, especially if you live in a northern climate like I do. No special care required;  just plant, keep the weeds away, and it blooms like crazy. The plant is super showy, large, and in-your-face beautiful. Registration data says that the flowers are 8 inches, but mine occasionally grow even larger -- bonus!

Coleman Hawkins is an award-winning Dan Bachman daylily, introduced in 2001 and hybridized in Ohio. Last summer my plant started blooming on July 9 and continued through August 16. Yes, really... I keep stats on all my daylilies. Knowing each plant's bloom time helps me decide where I place plants so I can achieve balanced bloom in my garden throughout the summer. It also makes decisions easier when it comes time to thin the herd. And just so you know, Coleman Hawkins is going nowhere. Gallop-on Coleman.

Pictured is one of my very favorite coneflowers, 'Coconut Lime.' I love the green and white combination! This echinacea starts blooming in July and grows approximately 24" tall. And if you deadhead the old blooms, it will continue producing new ones all summer and into fall. Echinaceas love full sun, regular watering until they are established, and well-drained soil. The coneflower blooms look quite a bit like a daisy at first and over a week or two gradually transform into pom-poms with little white skirts. The bees and butterflies love them! And the really good news? The herds of deer by our home never go near them! Although my photo was taken in late September, Coconut Lime is still happily in full bloom today despite a couple of light frosts here in Wisconsin.

The genus name, Echinacea, comes from the Greek word echinos meaning hedgehog or sea-urchin in reference to the spiny center cone. Coconut Lime was introduced by AB Cultivars in the Netherlands approximately a decade ago. So not only is it beautiful, it's well-traveled...coming to us all the way from Europe!

Echinacea Coconut Lime is pictured with Sedum ' Autumn Joy.'

 Last week I had a lively conversation with my friends. We were talking and laughing about the countless ways we have inflicted pain upon ourselves and been grossed-out, all  in the name of gardening.  It's what we refer to as "the dark side" of tending to our daylilies/flowers.  Here are a few of our collective experiences. You may smile and nod your head with familiarity. And P.S., I'm not admitting to any specific event as being my own. Smile.

• Pitchforks work great for lifting daylilies from the ground. They also are quite efficient at stabbing you in the leg. Thank you tetanus shot.
• Wheelbarrows are handy helpers...that can quickly turn into vehicles of destruction when you lose control of them while going down a hill.
• An unbalanced wheelbarrow=a bad thing. They inflict pain when they fall over on your leg/foot. The dirt and sharp tools inside just add insult to injury.
• Wire tomato cages are great for protecting new daylily plantings from deer. Just trip over them and see how much blood they can draw, especially the rusty ones. Again, thank you tetanus shot.
• Seeing a long handled claw tool (or garden rake) on the ground -- spikes up -- and mentally making note that you really need to turn it over so you don't step on it; getting distracted for a split second, turning around, stepping on the claw tool and WHOP! Stick-to-the-head.
• Here's a stroke of brilliance -- pulling on that ever-so-solid weed that finally gives way and you end up somersaulting backwards off a brick wall.
• How about taking that deep breath while digging, and getting a mouthful of dirt. (And feeling momentarily bad for mentally chastising someone you have recently seen spitting on the sidewalk...)
• You always wear garden gloves, right? But the *one* time you don't you get the stiff stalk of a weed jammed underneath your fingernail that swells up and takes weeks to be normal again.
• Burning nettle...enough said.
• Unexpectedly finding an underground bee nest, getting swarmed, and running for your life while simultaneously swearing.
• The nicety of clubbing your garden helper in the head with the handle of a shovel after they have so graciously offered to help you.
• Swatting a mosquito on your sweaty face, only to realize your garden glove is full of dirt. That usually happens right around the time a neighbor comes over to chat!
• And speaking of neighbors, there's the 'scare factor.' When you are deep in the gardening Zen-zone and someone comes up behind you and speaks. You jump up from your crouched position and scream, then they jump back and scream as well having been scared from scaring you.
• Accidentally shoveling a poor toad that has burrowed underground in the dirt - which makes for a no-good, horrible day!
• Getting a buzzing insect stuck inside your ear that refuses to come out.
  
• And finally, snorting and/or swallowing a wide variety of bugs. Routinely.

Gardening is just a little bit of yin and a whole bunch of yang. And that's why we still enjoy it!

Pictured above:  Daylily "Sharky's Revenge"

It seems like there has been some kind of weird turkey population explosion and they've all ended up in our yard. They lounge on our driveway, in my daylily gardens, on our back steps, and in general, pretty much wherever they want to! They are huge, noisy, and have a whole bunch of babies. After their visit, we (more often than not) have to hose off the driveway for obvious reasons. Yuck!

I figured there had to be some sure-fire way to deter these birds from hanging in our yard. From the websites I visited, the most popular deterrent seems to be simply spraying them with a garden hose or purchasing a motion sensor water sprayer. Can their brain even remember this? The automatic  hydro-sprayer costs about $60. One site suggested chasing the turkeys with a broom and "encouraging" them to go away. You can even purchase a propane cannon for over $200 - I'm getting visions of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.

Funny part is, it seems that holding a camera must be just as good a deterrent as a garden hose, because whenever I try to take a photo of said turkeys (and I have tried on numerous occasions), they scatter or fly away quicker than I can blink. Yes, these huge things actually fly too! And it's not pretty.

So here is a photo of the remaining wet turkey tracks on our driveway. The turkeys have vanished...for now anyway.